Issue 142  6 December 2022

2 new BeReal type features from Instagram

Instagram is working on more BeReal type features. Glimpse incorporates BeReal’s dual camera image sharing feature into Stories plus Roll Call where users have 5 minutes to post videos and images in a DM chat. As with Stories, these expire after 24 hours. The person who’s posted the Roll Call can unsend at any time. As with BeReal, only those who have added can see others’ responses.

Thanks to app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi for this news.

 

New AR experience on Snapchat

Snapchat has launched a new AR experience with sportswear brand New Balance to aid shoppers in the gifting season.

The New Balance Lens uses VoiceML software that works similarly to a chatbot, but is voice activated. Snapchatters verbally answer questions about whoever they’re shopping for - themselves, friends or family.

At the end of the experience, the Lens uses your answers to recommend one or more products to virtually unbox.

 

More notifications on Twitter

Twitter has added new mute options to notifications to give you more control of what you want to receive

Comment: Handy for this still on Twitter for reducing notifications. Would be good if you could also remove tweets on the same basis.

Thanks to Ahmed Ghanem @ahmedghanem on Twitter for this one.